“I knew things were bad when I told the guys to go out. I said we would defer but that we wanted to defend the closed end and kick to the open end,” Friedgen said. “They took the wrong end. Then again, the wind changed and I thought ‘Maybe the Good Lord is really looking out for me.’ It didn’t really matter that much. All those guys have over 3.5 GPAs.

“It was funny because I had them all up before the game and Dan said ‘Cory, do you want to do this? Do you want to talk out there because you’ve done this before.’”

Not exactly an auspicious start for the Terpies. And yet somehow, Friedgen and his team found their mark – even if it wasn’t exactly an intentional hustle in the end.